S.a.L.E. Docks – Venice, 7 May 2015

The videos of the speeches (in English) are now online!

In the opening days of the 56th Venice Biennale, Transnational Dialogues is participating in AB-STRIKE. This platform of events, set up by S.a.L.E. Docks and MACAO and taking place from from 1 to 8 May 2015 in Milan and Venice, is a practice of subversive imagination, a laboratory of commons, a hotbed of actions, artworks, talents and debates. Continue reading S.a.L.E. Docks – Venice, 7 May 2015

Call for Applications: Social Design Workshop and Residency – London, June 2015

THIS APPLICATION IS NOW CLOSED.

Who: European Alternatives / Transnational Dialogues / Hack (y)our Borders are launching this open call for applications

What: We offer one full travel scholarship, which covers 100% of the costs of international return flight China-United Kingdom, visa, insurance, local transportation and accommodation.

Whom: We look for one participant from mainland China. Continue reading Call for Applications: Social Design Workshop and Residency – London, June 2015

maumau – Recife, 7 April 2015

Join us  for an informal discussion around Transnational Dialogues 2015-2016 at maumau in Recife (Rua Nicaragua, 173 Espinheiro), on Tuesday 7 April 2015. Themes and ideas concerning this new edition of the project will be shared and openly discussed with those who attend. Luigi Galimberti will also present the Transnational Dialogues Journal 2014 with articles by Luiz Camillo Osorio, Hu Fang, Barbara Szaniecki, Jota Mombaça and many others. Continue reading maumau – Recife, 7 April 2015

Informal meeting TD 2015-2016 at Ponto Aurora

Join us  for an informal discussion around Transnational Dialogues 2015-2016 at Ponto Aurora in São Paulo (Rua Aurora, 858, República) from 6pm to 9pm, on Wednesday 25 March 2015. Themes and ideas concerning this new edition of the project will be shared and openly discussed with those who attend.

Lorenzo Marsili and Luigi Galimberti will present the Transnational Dialogues Journal 2014 with articles by Luiz Camillo Osorio, Hu Fang, Barbara Szaniecki, Jota Mombaça and many others. Copies will be given for free as long as available.

Should you wish to attend, join our event on Facebook or drop us a message. The discussion will be in English and Portuguese. Many thanks to Ponto Aurora for hosting this meeting!

Rethinking Culture. An interview with Juca Ferreira

Q: The reform brought by the Pontos de Cultura (‘Culture Hotspots’) in 2010 is considered revolutionary in the management of the public spending from the State towards the cultural sector. What has worked? What has not? As for the latter case, why so?

A: The idea behind the Culture Hotspots is that the State must have the means to strengthen initiatives that already exist in the society. In this sense, the aim was to approach culture and citizenship, to build a shared management between the society and the public authorities, as well as to propel the most diverse languages – from the traditional popular culture to the experimentation with new technologies. The Culture Hotspots helped consolidating and brought scale to thousands of spontaneous and well-succeeded initiatives…

Read the rest of the interview in the Transnational Dialogues Journal 2014 (pp. 52-55, ENGLISH and PORTUGUESE).

Juca Ferreira is a sociologist and the current Minister of Culture of Brazil. Luigi Galimberti and Lorenzo Marsili, the interviewers, are coordinators of Transnational Dialogues.

ROLO. A Performance by Wellington Dias

The performance “ROLO” took place within and without the MAXXI Museum in Rome on Sunday 16 November 2014, as part of the final event of Transnational Dialogues 2014.

Many thanks to Emanuela Stramenga (European Alternatives) who guided the performer through the streets of the Flaminio neighborhood, to Irene De Vico and all the curators at MAXXI Museum, and to all the public that confronted the heavy rain of a dark autumn afternoon and followed the performance until the very end.

Wellington Dias is an artist and performer. He is one of the coordinators of Casa Gira Mundo (Lapa, Rio de janeiro) and founder of the Bando Filhotes de Leão (Rio de Janeiro). His project “Tecno Barca”, which took place in the Archipelague of Bailique in the Amazon River, won a Funarte 2011 award and the Premio Samuel Benchimol de Empreendedorismo Consciente 2012.

Walking out of the Contemporary

“Walking out of the Contemporary” is a performance walk guided by Bel Falleiros, Robin Resch and Lorenzo Romito (Stalker Collective).

The walk started from outside the gates of MAXXI Museum, Rome, on Sunday 16 November, 11am, and went on for almost three hours exploring the surrounding of the museum and passing through or by Stadio Flaminio, the Auditorium, the Olympic Village, Corso Francia, Lungotevere Milvio and Ponte della Musica, before going back to its start.

map1_walk

(Map design by Bel Falleiros; source: Google Maps)

It was a walk out of the contemporary, exploring actual territories, ruins, unplanned lots and spontaneous urbanization, which aimed at uncovering a space of potential and at creating new gazes over the city.

More information on Stalker Collective’s artistic practice and on the theoretical background of the walk can be found here in a recent article by Lorenzo Romito, fully and freely available at the following link: http://walkingoutofcontemporary.com/outofcontemporary/

Filming and editing by Giuseppe Bucci. Soundtrack by Acquario Stardust.

Change Utopia! An interview with Hou Hanru

What is utopia? What does it mean to change utopia now? Is the role of the artist to destroy the current failing utopias or is it to create new utopias? How one could read the current situation in Hong Kong from a cultural and artistic perspective?

Those and others are the questions that are addressed by Chinese curator Hou Hanru in a dialogue with Luigi Galimberti, coordinator of Transnational Dialogues. The interview was filmed on the occasion of the event “TD @ MAXXI”, Rome, 15-16 November 2014.

Rocks and Rice / 石与稻

by Hu Fang (胡昉)

Always arrive late.
When I reached the garden in Kyoto, the door stood ajar, the abbot had departed, only some rocks were left in the sand where gravel traces he combed out, like the imprint of the body left by lovers, remained.

总是太晚的到达。
当我到达京都这座园林,园门虚掩着,方丈已经离去,只留下矗立在沙砾之中的一堆乱石,沙砾上还残留着他刚刚梳耙过的痕迹,犹如床单上余留着的爱人身体的印痕。

Read the rest of the article in the Transnational Dialogues Journal 2014 (pp. 20-22, CHINESE and ENGLISH).

Hu Fang (胡昉) is a novelist, art critic, and the co-founder and artistic director of Vitamin Creative Space in Guangzhou.

Cover photo by Hu Fang

Public Thought and the Needs of the Artists

by Tatiana Richard

Brazil’s economic context along with its regionalization directly influences the artistic production, historically concentrated on big urban centers, such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, ultimately gaining capillarity in locations like Recife, a city now recognized as a major producer of contents related with new technologies. Its cultural investments take place through several programs and projects, which have the tax incentives laws as main funding method. Yet, why is there a permanent dissatisfaction regarding public investments, especially among artists?

Read the rest of the article in the Transnational Dialogues Journal 2014 (pp. 48-49, PORTUGUESE and ENGLISH).

Tatiana Vieira Assumpção Richard is Public Manager of Cultural Promotion for the Government of the State of Rio de Janeiro and researcher in the field of economy and funding for culture.

[Cover photo: “Transnational Dialogues at Fabrica de Bhering, Rio de Janeiro, February 2014” by Tahian Bhering]

From the Art of the State to the Art of Business, or Artistic Output on a Precarious Scale

by Jota Mombaça

I live in North-east Brazil. In a city that I call Natown. The sun is constantly burning over our heads. The waterside is taken up by hotels, luxury buildings, kiosks, restaurants and clubs. I live where you spend vacation.  A city from the tropics, built as a tourist paradise. This implies, most obviously, an organization of urban space focused on sanitized areas – where the tourists go – to the detriment of other parts of the city, that are increasingly more precarious. But there are also less obvious consequences. Throughout this text, I would like to reflect on how the tourist character of my town interferes with the cultural politics aimed at local artistic production, by regulating the types of projects that get, or don’t get public funding, as well as their visibility and conditions for continuity…

Read the rest of the article in the Transnational Dialogues Journal 2014 (pp. 26-29, PORTUGUESE, CHINESE and ENGLISH).

Jota Mombaça is a writer, performer and autonomous researcher. He is a participant in Transnational Dialogues 2014.

[Cover photo “Ao lumpenproletariado do i-mundo” by Camila Melo]